Endless Stars

Roni

The Roni homeworld has many different names, depending on what mood the Roni is in when they say it. This is because it is in the shared Roni Lexicon, which is the fancy name for the vast collection of languages that the Roni speak. Roni are unique in that their ‘language’ is actually a mix of thousands of different unique dialects, passed on from the earliest stages of ancient Roni. Roni have an incredible mind for language, and most Roni learn every dialect of the planet at birth; when their planet was finally united under a single Nation, it didn’t take long for the various cultures and languages to mash into one big melting pot. Almost all modern Roni can speak every language native to their jungle-like planet, and can switch between them with ease; sometimes on accident. There are nearly a hundred different names for every heavenly body, each species of animal, each body of water, and oftentimes, native Roni will have many different names for themselves.

All of this aside, the generally accepted name for the Roni homeworld (as far as stellar politics is concerned) is “Ta’Roni”, its official title in all Solarian charter books. It is a lush jungle planet, situated not far from Blipblublip, and its slow rate of rotation means exceptionally long days and exceptionally long nights. The difference between nocturnal life and diurnal life on Ta’Roni is extreme; depending on what time of day you land, you are greeted with an incredible variation of flora and fauna that either frolic in the sun or skulk in the night. The Roni are among the daytime-oriented species, which boded well for their integration into the largely diurnal regime of interstellar empires.

There’s actually terms for the two types of species on Ta’Roni that go beyond nocturnal/diurnal cycle; that being, species that stay in one spot and hibernate through whichever state they don’t like (through the long night, or the long day, depending on their preferred environment), and the other kind, which are ‘migratory’ species that move with the planet’s rotation and always stay ahead of the sunset or the sunrise. The Roni are migratory species, meaning they spent most of their tribal lives trekking across well-worn jungle paths, constantly circumventing the globe to stay in the daytime, with plenty of time to rest in the sun once they had gotten far enough ahead. Somewhere along societal evolution, however, the demand for agriculture to fulfill the needs of larger populations eventually forced the Roni to settle down against their evolutionary nature, and many technologies were developed purely to help them live in nocturnal environments. Most Roni are still uncomfortable in the darkness, whether it be on their own planet or any other, and, funnily enough, a discomfort for the void of space, probably because of its similarity. Some theorists suggest this might have contributed to their lack of development in space technologies, only finally ‘uplifted’ to the space age by Cephaloid explorers, but many still agree that the main reason was probably their inherent ineptitude for the hard sciences.

When the first Cephaloids arrived, they didn’t leave empty handed; the squids were eager to take many of the native Roni they found there, and many Roni went willingly. They were amazed at the idea of intelligent life beyond their own, and they were quick to try and make friends with the new species. Unfortunately, the Cephaloids did not see them as equals due to the large gaps in technological development. A large population of Roni were taken from their home planet in the subsequent years, brought back to Blipblupblib to be bred as slaves for labor. Many Roni were happy to settle down and help accomplish the tasks the Cephaloids set before them; the Cephaloids were actually very accommodating to the Roni needs, and at the time, Roni society was used to communal efforts and a lack of individualism, meaning they were more than happy to work for a common goal as long as their housing and food was provided for them. Though life on an alien planet was difficult, at first, the amphibious Roni were a decent fit on the oceanic planet of Blipblupblib, and through some subtle gene splicing, the Cephaloids were able to help them adapt to the saltwater over the course of a few generation. It wasn’t until many years later that the first civil rights movements sprung up, in light of specific issues in interstellar politics that the Roni decided they should have a political say in. The movements were short and widely successful, and “Saltwater Roni” soon became fully fledged citizens of the Cephaloid empire.